Some of you will remember the story about the Apostle Paul in Athens, having a conversation with people about the "unknown God" they were worshiping. The story is in Acts 17, and I've always thought it was interesting. Here Paul sees all of the worship of other gods in the city, and he gets upset. So he's wandering around talking about Jesus to anyone who will listen. Eventually, the people become curious enough to bring him to the place where things like this are discussed, and he's invited to speak. And instead of criticizing their belief system, Paul looks for the truth in it. He sees that they have an alter to an unknown God. And Paul names Yahweh as this unknown God and speaks to them about Jesus and his resurrection from the dead.
Why didn't Paul tell them that the other gods weren't alive? The Jewish belief system was strongly monotheistic, having no room for any God but Yahweh. Why didn't he tell them that their worship of idols was worthless and that to have salvation they had to give up their own gods and follow his? Why didn't he try to change their whole culture and belief system first?
Instead, Paul explained the resurrection and introduced the person of Jesus and Yahweh and invited people to follow. And I think we can learn a lot from this. I often feel the message that I get from churches or from the Christian community is that a person has to become culturally Christian before they can follow Jesus. They have to believe everything I do about morality and theology in order to take that step into the kingdom. But I don't think this is true. Jesus took people where they were, invited them to follow, and then he gave them teaching so that they could grow into believing who he actually is. Even the disciples believed that he was a political (rather than spiritual) savior when they first followed Christ. But what was important was that they followed him--they learned to hear his voice and to obey and follow, and all the rest of it came later. I would argue that morality and theology are a result of following Jesus not a prerequisite to it.
What do you think? Is your invitation for others to follow Jesus normally cluttered with expectations about what they believe or how they behave? What would happen if you just introduced people to Jesus and then let Jesus and his teachings challenge their morality and theology?
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
what my clients have taught me
Sometimes I have really difficult clients. This probably isn't a surprise, given that I do mostly court-appointed criminal defense. The most difficult ones are the ones who are ruled entirely by emotion.
I've developed some strategies over the years I've been practicing law. I've noticed that in order to reason with someone rationally, I have to let them express their emotions. Usually I have to validate their feelings and frustrations. Only then, after both of those things, can I begin to advise them on what the courts and rules of law say that we can do and what I think we should do. It takes a significant amount of relational investment and patience to work through these emotional barriers to the situation. Mostly what it takes is a willingness to listen and an empathy about the emotions expressed.
I've noticed the same thing about spiritual things over the years. Our culture is becoming increasingly more based in the emotions. In order to help someone to meet Jesus, we've got to help them move through their emotions about God and the church and everything in between. It takes a significant amount of relational investment and patience to listen as someone expresses their emotions about these things. It takes an empathy and compassion so that our friends feel listened to and validated. And it takes sensitivity to the Spirit to know when to take the next step and share from our hearts what God has done in us and what he is inviting them to.
I know that I talk a lot about emotional barriers to faith, and that's because this conversation is not really happening anywhere else. But there is a time when it's appropriate to share rationally about who God is. There is a time for testimony and for information. We just need to be really careful not to miss the other stuff as well. All the information in the world is not going to get my client from point A to point B, at least not until he feels like I care about him and have listened to him. I have to earn the right to be heard--I have to earn his trust. And I have to do the same thing in the lives of my friends when I am hoping to share Christ with them.
Can you identify in your own life or someone else's how emotions are primary and rationality is secondary? Can you reason them out of their feelings? How do these same emotions affect a person's spirituality and relationship with God?
I've developed some strategies over the years I've been practicing law. I've noticed that in order to reason with someone rationally, I have to let them express their emotions. Usually I have to validate their feelings and frustrations. Only then, after both of those things, can I begin to advise them on what the courts and rules of law say that we can do and what I think we should do. It takes a significant amount of relational investment and patience to work through these emotional barriers to the situation. Mostly what it takes is a willingness to listen and an empathy about the emotions expressed.
I've noticed the same thing about spiritual things over the years. Our culture is becoming increasingly more based in the emotions. In order to help someone to meet Jesus, we've got to help them move through their emotions about God and the church and everything in between. It takes a significant amount of relational investment and patience to listen as someone expresses their emotions about these things. It takes an empathy and compassion so that our friends feel listened to and validated. And it takes sensitivity to the Spirit to know when to take the next step and share from our hearts what God has done in us and what he is inviting them to.
I know that I talk a lot about emotional barriers to faith, and that's because this conversation is not really happening anywhere else. But there is a time when it's appropriate to share rationally about who God is. There is a time for testimony and for information. We just need to be really careful not to miss the other stuff as well. All the information in the world is not going to get my client from point A to point B, at least not until he feels like I care about him and have listened to him. I have to earn the right to be heard--I have to earn his trust. And I have to do the same thing in the lives of my friends when I am hoping to share Christ with them.
Can you identify in your own life or someone else's how emotions are primary and rationality is secondary? Can you reason them out of their feelings? How do these same emotions affect a person's spirituality and relationship with God?
Monday, November 12, 2012
What would you say?
Imagine if you were a part of the following conversation with someone you know is not following Jesus:
Al: Yeah, my friend and I went on this church retreat one time. She’s seriously the nicest person in the whole world. And they told her she was going to hell because she’s an atheist, can you believe that?
Bryten: Well, the Bible does say that if you don’t believe in Jesus, you won’t be going to heaven when you die.
Al: Yeah, but that doesn’t even make sense. I mean, I know lots of Christians who are mean. They hurt animals, they hurt people. They want us to go to war. They’re rude and horrible. It doesn’t make sense that they would go to heaven, and people like my best friend and my dad would go to hell. They honestly are the best people in the whole world.
What do you say?
Do you say, "Here, let me show you in the Bible - it says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. But if you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your hearts that God raised him from the dead, you’ll be saved."
Do you say, "Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that was your experience. What did you do?"
Do you say, "Wow. I'm so sorry that you had that experience. That must have been really hard. You know... I think Jesus might have told a story about something like that. This really rich guy who did everything right on the outside came up to Jesus and said, "Teacher, what must I do to make sure that I have eternal life." And Jesus said, "You know the things God commanded--do not murder, do not steal, etc." And the guy said, "I've done all of these since I was young... is there anything I'm supposed to do?" And Jesus said, "sell everything you have and follow me." What do you think about that?
Each of these responses will have a different effect on your friend's thinking and even their experience of your relationship. The first engages Al's intellect and comes from a authority-down approach. Basically, here's the Bible's answer to your question. But if you're coming from this perspective, Al has to share your assumption that Scripture has authority in your life. If Al doesn't, then you're not going to get anywhere with your argument. And even if Al does share your assumptions, you still haven't answered the questions of Al's heart.
The second response invites further relationship and further information from Al. But it doesn't really engage his intellect or the emotions.
The third response gives some information through a story that invites further reflection. It could engage Al's emotions, and it invites him to look deeper than someone's outward actions to the heart, because that's what Jesus was looking at. It might even open opportunities to talk about how hearts are transformed by Jesus and what that looks and feels like. It could be followed up with personal examples of how Jesus has changed your heart.
I certainly don't think there's one right way to interact with every person. But if you look closely at the original conversation, you can see how much emotion is tied up in the discussion. It's not just the Al's best friend he's concerned about, it's also his father. And an emotionally based question needs a response that engages a person at the heart level, not just at the intellect.
So what would you say? Do you have a personal story about God transforming your heart that you could share after the story of the rich young ruler?
Al: Yeah, my friend and I went on this church retreat one time. She’s seriously the nicest person in the whole world. And they told her she was going to hell because she’s an atheist, can you believe that?
Bryten: Well, the Bible does say that if you don’t believe in Jesus, you won’t be going to heaven when you die.
Al: Yeah, but that doesn’t even make sense. I mean, I know lots of Christians who are mean. They hurt animals, they hurt people. They want us to go to war. They’re rude and horrible. It doesn’t make sense that they would go to heaven, and people like my best friend and my dad would go to hell. They honestly are the best people in the whole world.
What do you say?
Do you say, "Here, let me show you in the Bible - it says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. But if you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your hearts that God raised him from the dead, you’ll be saved."
Do you say, "Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that was your experience. What did you do?"
Do you say, "Wow. I'm so sorry that you had that experience. That must have been really hard. You know... I think Jesus might have told a story about something like that. This really rich guy who did everything right on the outside came up to Jesus and said, "Teacher, what must I do to make sure that I have eternal life." And Jesus said, "You know the things God commanded--do not murder, do not steal, etc." And the guy said, "I've done all of these since I was young... is there anything I'm supposed to do?" And Jesus said, "sell everything you have and follow me." What do you think about that?
Each of these responses will have a different effect on your friend's thinking and even their experience of your relationship. The first engages Al's intellect and comes from a authority-down approach. Basically, here's the Bible's answer to your question. But if you're coming from this perspective, Al has to share your assumption that Scripture has authority in your life. If Al doesn't, then you're not going to get anywhere with your argument. And even if Al does share your assumptions, you still haven't answered the questions of Al's heart.
The second response invites further relationship and further information from Al. But it doesn't really engage his intellect or the emotions.
The third response gives some information through a story that invites further reflection. It could engage Al's emotions, and it invites him to look deeper than someone's outward actions to the heart, because that's what Jesus was looking at. It might even open opportunities to talk about how hearts are transformed by Jesus and what that looks and feels like. It could be followed up with personal examples of how Jesus has changed your heart.
I certainly don't think there's one right way to interact with every person. But if you look closely at the original conversation, you can see how much emotion is tied up in the discussion. It's not just the Al's best friend he's concerned about, it's also his father. And an emotionally based question needs a response that engages a person at the heart level, not just at the intellect.
So what would you say? Do you have a personal story about God transforming your heart that you could share after the story of the rich young ruler?
Monday, November 5, 2012
Combat-ready
"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." Ephesians 6:18-20 (NIV).
Just before this exhortation to pray, the apostle Paul explained to the Ephesians that we do not struggle against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities of the spiritual world.
So much of the spiritual life is invisible. We pray for God to transform people's hearts. And sometimes we can see the fruit of that, in the transformation of a person's actions, but the primary work is done inside, where we can never go. We experience spiritual oppression and resistance, but that too often shows up only in our hearts or our emotions or our minds.
I know that I've written to you before about spiritual darkness and times of absolute travail and how deeply I have sensed the spiritual warfare over the past five years, since I started talking about emotional barriers to faith and how to be an ambassador of Jesus in everyday life. But this week I've been reminded again of the need for prayer. And not just prayers of personal deliverance, but community prayers that God would break through into the lives of the others in our spiritual community.
These past weeks, since my near car accident, have been times of incredible spiritual oppression for me. For me, this often looks like an emotional apathy, questions about what I am doing and what I am writing and where it's all going, if anywhere. It's the inability to see God at work. It's a complete exhaustion and a desire to withdraw from relationships and activities.
But at the same time, God has provided. He's provided a community of people who will pray with me and for me. He's provided good friends who will speak truth to me. He's provided the encouragement of a random dear friend writing to tell me that she was praying for me this week as she was trying to go to sleep. He's provided the encouragement of a glimmer of where things might be going and what God is longing to accomplish through my life and ministry.
I don't know how you live life in the kingdom, praying and laboring to see the Kingdom of God come and people re-made into true followers to Christ, without a community of believers who will pray for you and support you. You have to expect that you will face spiritual resistance. And you need to be meeting that resistance the spiritual weapon of prayer. But you can't do it alone. You need to find others who will walk alongside you.
Who do you have in your life who will pray with you and for you as you seek the Kingdom of God? Who are you walking beside and praying for as they learn to follow Jesus? Where can you go to find the spiritual support that you need to survive?
Just before this exhortation to pray, the apostle Paul explained to the Ephesians that we do not struggle against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities of the spiritual world.
So much of the spiritual life is invisible. We pray for God to transform people's hearts. And sometimes we can see the fruit of that, in the transformation of a person's actions, but the primary work is done inside, where we can never go. We experience spiritual oppression and resistance, but that too often shows up only in our hearts or our emotions or our minds.
I know that I've written to you before about spiritual darkness and times of absolute travail and how deeply I have sensed the spiritual warfare over the past five years, since I started talking about emotional barriers to faith and how to be an ambassador of Jesus in everyday life. But this week I've been reminded again of the need for prayer. And not just prayers of personal deliverance, but community prayers that God would break through into the lives of the others in our spiritual community.
These past weeks, since my near car accident, have been times of incredible spiritual oppression for me. For me, this often looks like an emotional apathy, questions about what I am doing and what I am writing and where it's all going, if anywhere. It's the inability to see God at work. It's a complete exhaustion and a desire to withdraw from relationships and activities.
But at the same time, God has provided. He's provided a community of people who will pray with me and for me. He's provided good friends who will speak truth to me. He's provided the encouragement of a random dear friend writing to tell me that she was praying for me this week as she was trying to go to sleep. He's provided the encouragement of a glimmer of where things might be going and what God is longing to accomplish through my life and ministry.
I don't know how you live life in the kingdom, praying and laboring to see the Kingdom of God come and people re-made into true followers to Christ, without a community of believers who will pray for you and support you. You have to expect that you will face spiritual resistance. And you need to be meeting that resistance the spiritual weapon of prayer. But you can't do it alone. You need to find others who will walk alongside you.
Who do you have in your life who will pray with you and for you as you seek the Kingdom of God? Who are you walking beside and praying for as they learn to follow Jesus? Where can you go to find the spiritual support that you need to survive?
Monday, October 29, 2012
a miraculous deliverance
This week I had a traumatic car non-accident when the wheel of my car flew off while I was driving 70mph on the highway. I spun around a couple of times, but I didn't hit anyone and no one hit me. When my passenger explained what she saw during this non-accident, she said it seemed like the cars around us were just melting away. I know I was mere inches away from a cement wall and almost slammed into it head on, but somehow the car shifted directions at the last minute and I ended up sliding parallel to it instead.
When I began to talk about my incident, I was quick to share with everyone that I'd been miraculously delivered from harm. I shared that God had supernaturally intervened and kept me safe. But even as I made the choice to say those things, I thought about how careful we have to be about what we claim to know about God.
Because even as I was saying that I was miraculously delivered, I wondered why my roommate's dad was not delivered from his fatal car accident a few years ago. I wondered why my younger brother suffered from cancer or my own dad passed away after a pulminary embolism. The minute I make claims about God's supernatural intervention in my life, that same minute I invite the question about why God didn't intervene in another time and another tragic situation.
Formal theologians have several different answers to this question, and each of us who lives with faith in God has to wrestle through those same questions. Some claim the ultimate sovereignty of God and rest in his goodness. Others speak about the already-but not yet aspects of the kingdom of God where sometimes it is breaking through and other times it is held back. Some say that we simply can't know but they are content to rest in the mystery of it all because they trust that God is good.
Whatever your belief about that issue, I think this brings up a really important point, which is that what we say about God has a real affect on how others perceive him and relate to him. If I walked into a funeral home where the guy had died in a car accident and I told my miraculous story of deliverance, I might unintentionally create an emotional barrier in the mourners' hearts to believing and trusting in God. If I claim that I know God and he has this character trait or that one, I might cause people to react emotionally before they ever get to know God at a relational level. What I say about God can profoundly impact another person's life and his ability to relate to God in the future.
So as I was sitting on the highway, waiting for the police car to arrive, I thought and prayed about the story I would tell about the accident. Was it fair to attribute my deliverance to God? Who should I tell this story to? Should I declare that it was a miracle and give thanksgiving to God? Of course. But maybe not in every context. And if I do, and when I do, I think it's important for me to acknowledge that I might be wrong. That my perception of God and my relationship with him is based in part on my experience, and I'm an inherently limited being. Yes, I want to praise God and thank God for his salvation, but I also want to respect where people are at. More than that, I need to be prayerful and sensitive to God's leading about what will be helpful in a situation and what may harm those around me.
What things have others said about God that created an emotionally negative reaction in you? Did that emotional reaction affect your ability to relate to God? What things to you tell or claim about the character of God? Might those things be appropriate to share in some situations and not appropriate in others?
When I began to talk about my incident, I was quick to share with everyone that I'd been miraculously delivered from harm. I shared that God had supernaturally intervened and kept me safe. But even as I made the choice to say those things, I thought about how careful we have to be about what we claim to know about God.
Because even as I was saying that I was miraculously delivered, I wondered why my roommate's dad was not delivered from his fatal car accident a few years ago. I wondered why my younger brother suffered from cancer or my own dad passed away after a pulminary embolism. The minute I make claims about God's supernatural intervention in my life, that same minute I invite the question about why God didn't intervene in another time and another tragic situation.
Formal theologians have several different answers to this question, and each of us who lives with faith in God has to wrestle through those same questions. Some claim the ultimate sovereignty of God and rest in his goodness. Others speak about the already-but not yet aspects of the kingdom of God where sometimes it is breaking through and other times it is held back. Some say that we simply can't know but they are content to rest in the mystery of it all because they trust that God is good.
Whatever your belief about that issue, I think this brings up a really important point, which is that what we say about God has a real affect on how others perceive him and relate to him. If I walked into a funeral home where the guy had died in a car accident and I told my miraculous story of deliverance, I might unintentionally create an emotional barrier in the mourners' hearts to believing and trusting in God. If I claim that I know God and he has this character trait or that one, I might cause people to react emotionally before they ever get to know God at a relational level. What I say about God can profoundly impact another person's life and his ability to relate to God in the future.
So as I was sitting on the highway, waiting for the police car to arrive, I thought and prayed about the story I would tell about the accident. Was it fair to attribute my deliverance to God? Who should I tell this story to? Should I declare that it was a miracle and give thanksgiving to God? Of course. But maybe not in every context. And if I do, and when I do, I think it's important for me to acknowledge that I might be wrong. That my perception of God and my relationship with him is based in part on my experience, and I'm an inherently limited being. Yes, I want to praise God and thank God for his salvation, but I also want to respect where people are at. More than that, I need to be prayerful and sensitive to God's leading about what will be helpful in a situation and what may harm those around me.
What things have others said about God that created an emotionally negative reaction in you? Did that emotional reaction affect your ability to relate to God? What things to you tell or claim about the character of God? Might those things be appropriate to share in some situations and not appropriate in others?
Monday, October 22, 2012
unanswered prayers
About once a year, usually in December, I head off to a silent retreat place to pray about the coming year and try to get a sense of where God is leading and what he wants to do in and through me. Last year was no different, and I sensed God leading me to pray faithfully for a few specific things. Among them were prayers for six people that I'd been investing in. Three of them do not know Christ, and I've been praying for God to break into their lives, that he would reveal himself to them, and that other Christians might come into their lives to demonstrate the kingdom. Three of them are Christians, and I played a part in helping them to know Christ. For them, I prayed that God would give them a vision for their lives that goes beyond just an interest in comfort and self, but that they would truly come to know what it means to follow Jesus and be inspired to give their lives to bring his kingdom.
Ten months in, five of the six have disappeared from my life. They're gone. Some I can't even find to get a hold of, and some have just moved on to new people and new experiences. And for those I still talk to occasionally, I can't see any evidence that God has answered my year-long prayers for them. As for the sixth, though we still hang out, I can't even remember the last time we had a conversation about faith or spiritual things.
So what went wrong? Maybe God is still working in ways that I can't see. If so, I don't want to give up too soon. But maybe my influence in their lives has just come to a natural end so that I should focus on building relationships with and praying for others who've come into my life this year. Or maybe there's something I didn't do and should have or did do that I shouldn't have. I don't know. If it wasn't true that God has been answering some of the other specific prayers for this year in miraculous ways, I would wonder if God was even hearing me...
So this is one of those challenging things about living with a kingdom mentality. I have to stay sensitive to how the Spirit is leading and be willing to keep pursuing or to move on, as he leads. And even when I follow him where I think he's leading, I don't always see what I expect to. If you'd told me last December that I'd lose all these relationships, I don't think I would've believed that was even possible.
I should say that I think it's really important to build relationships with people that are real and genuine and not just based on me trying to get them to meet Jesus. I mean, I really want to know them and care about them as whole people. So even when I can't see the Spirit working, that's never a reason to abandon ship. That said, where I'm trying to build mutual relationships, sometimes the right thing is to let someone walk away.
I should also say that we can't discount the power of evil in the world. For all that God desires to do in peoples' lives, there is another who desires to prevent people from fully surrendering to God's reign in their lives. Perhaps the answer to my dilemma is simply that the powers of darkness are holding back the work that God wants to do. And if that's what's happening here, then I would want to dig my heels in and seek the prayers of my Christian community for my friends.
What about you? Have you ever prayed for God to move and seen what seems to be the exact opposite happen? What has that done to your faith? How do you think God wants us to respond in these circumstances?
Ten months in, five of the six have disappeared from my life. They're gone. Some I can't even find to get a hold of, and some have just moved on to new people and new experiences. And for those I still talk to occasionally, I can't see any evidence that God has answered my year-long prayers for them. As for the sixth, though we still hang out, I can't even remember the last time we had a conversation about faith or spiritual things.
So what went wrong? Maybe God is still working in ways that I can't see. If so, I don't want to give up too soon. But maybe my influence in their lives has just come to a natural end so that I should focus on building relationships with and praying for others who've come into my life this year. Or maybe there's something I didn't do and should have or did do that I shouldn't have. I don't know. If it wasn't true that God has been answering some of the other specific prayers for this year in miraculous ways, I would wonder if God was even hearing me...
So this is one of those challenging things about living with a kingdom mentality. I have to stay sensitive to how the Spirit is leading and be willing to keep pursuing or to move on, as he leads. And even when I follow him where I think he's leading, I don't always see what I expect to. If you'd told me last December that I'd lose all these relationships, I don't think I would've believed that was even possible.
I should say that I think it's really important to build relationships with people that are real and genuine and not just based on me trying to get them to meet Jesus. I mean, I really want to know them and care about them as whole people. So even when I can't see the Spirit working, that's never a reason to abandon ship. That said, where I'm trying to build mutual relationships, sometimes the right thing is to let someone walk away.
I should also say that we can't discount the power of evil in the world. For all that God desires to do in peoples' lives, there is another who desires to prevent people from fully surrendering to God's reign in their lives. Perhaps the answer to my dilemma is simply that the powers of darkness are holding back the work that God wants to do. And if that's what's happening here, then I would want to dig my heels in and seek the prayers of my Christian community for my friends.
What about you? Have you ever prayed for God to move and seen what seems to be the exact opposite happen? What has that done to your faith? How do you think God wants us to respond in these circumstances?
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Saturday Book Review - This Beautiful Mess
McKinley, Rick. This Beautiful Mess: Practicing the Presence
of the Kingdom of God. Colorado
Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2006.
This book was written for those whose experience in the orderly, predictable, and antiseptic Western church does not match what they experience in real life. The author acknowledges a conflict between religiosity and real life, and he argues that the conflict exists because the church in does not reflect the truth of the Kingdom of God. The primary message of his book is to invite us to experience the kingdom in our everyday lives. To do so, the author argues, we must acknowledge and live like we have a King, who is the Creator God. We must stop defining spirituality in terms of achievement and move toward a state of being—of being within the kingdom. Once we have done this, we can imagine what living in the Kingdom could look like in our everyday life, and he spends the last half of the book giving us examples of that from his own experiences.
Because the author is arguing that we need to go from an old way of thinking about the Kingdom to a new one, he gives us several steps to take. First, he encourages readers to discover the kingdom of God. He doesn’t want us to reduce the gospel of the kingdom to make it equivalent with the church; he doesn’t want us to spiritualize the kingdom by claiming that it’s already here in all its fullness now; and he doesn’t want us to postpone the gospel by believing that it will not be here until Jesus comes so we don’t have to find a way to live within it now. With a story of being seated next to a guy on a plane who was the king of a small nation, he invites us to consider that to experience God’s kingdom we have to stop trying to control God. He invites us to see the beauty of the Kingdom as it breaks through into the mess of this world.
Second, he argues that we need to re-envision the Kingdom. The author argues that we need to see this Kingdom as God’s Kingdom rather than ours. We need to see it not as a ladder of achievements but a garden that is growing: we can water and weed, but we really are just watching the kingdom grow through God’s efforts. We also need to see the Kingdom as an often-invisible dimension that permeates our world like yeast permeates bread. Finally, he cautions that our ability to see the Kingdom is sometimes hindered by the brokenness of the world. Though the Kingdom of God is made up of all good things, of life and healing and joy and contentment, the realities of this world are full of sickness, death, and suffering. He argues that the Kingdom is still there in the places of darkness when the people of God bring it there in simple ways, mostly by relationally reaching out to those around them.
Third, the author argues that the church can build “signposts” for the world that demonstrate the presence of the Kingdom through our actions of love and care for those around us. He then explores examples what building these signposts looks like in different areas of life. First, the author challenges how we view children and argues that we should spend time with children and learn from them about how they see the world. Second, he argues that the church is called to go into places where we aren’t right now, particularly to the marginalized, and live life alongside them, seeking to meet their needs. Third, he argues that we should treat money the way God does, as a valuable tool for the kingdom rather than as something to make our own lives better. Finally, he examines suffering and argues that we should both walk with people in suffering and choose to suffer for them. The author believes that this suffering must come from a place of relationship with those who are already suffering.
The author concludes with a message of hope. He points ahead to the future, to the parts of the Kingdom will come but that are not yet evident. He argues that we should be encouraged to live according to Kingdom values now, even to the point that we may suffer for them, because we know what the Kingdom will look like when it is finally realized.
Overall, this book is more devotional than theological. The author introduces many topics about the Kingdom, but instead of delving into them in an abstract way, he illustrates the topics with a story. For example, when he talks about how to bring a Kingdom perspective into how we deal with money, he tells the story of how he received a $100 bill from Shane Claiborne with the word “love” written on it. Shane had taken $20,000 to Wall Street in New York City and dumped it on the ground, and then he sent $100 bills to several pastors and community leaders. The author explained how he viewed that $100 bill differently from all the other money in his wallet because of where it came from. He then argued that we should view our money as something that has the stamp of Christ on it (rather than a picture of George Washington) and how, as such, it is meant to be used as a resource for the Kingdom.
As a devotional work, I thought there were several positive aspects. The cry of the Kingdom, that God’s will be done and his Kingdom come on earth, is evident here. The stories the author told made mysterious and abstract concepts tangible. However, because it is not a theological treatise, the author left many terms undefined and many questions unanswered. So the book’s very tangibility may have also led to a lack of concreteness. This lack of concreteness, in turn, might tend to lead to an oversimplification of ideas around the Kingdom and a possibility of miscommunication if the reader is from a different background or set of life experiences than the author is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)